


Get a little bit stressed out, when I think about you

by Dylanobrienisbatman



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: (sort of), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Coffee, Emori is an Art Curator, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Falling In Love, Found Family, Friends to Lovers, Holidays, Love at First Sight, Meet-Cute, Merry Memori, Murphy is a Chef, New Year's Eve, New Year's Kiss, Secret Santa Fic Giveaway, Thanksgiving, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 10:14:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17139878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dylanobrienisbatman/pseuds/Dylanobrienisbatman
Summary: Murphy slips on a patch of ice on a sidewalk in mid October, and drags a girl with warm brown eyes and a blinding smile down with him. He thinks thats probably the end of it, but the universe seems to have other plans. She reappears in his life, and slowly becomes the biggest part of it, and his feelings keep bubbling up, because Emori might just be the best thing that ever happened to him.





	Get a little bit stressed out, when I think about you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the_most_beautiful_broom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_most_beautiful_broom/gifts).



A late fall morning. An icy sidewalk. An arm reaching out for nothing in particular, to stay vertical.

A girl.

Falling to the ground as he dragged a stranger down with him.

Her giggle, warm and pretty ringing in his ears.

John Murphy had been walking to work on an icy Tuesday morning in October, an early frost and no salt creating a slick ground beneath his loafers. He tried to walk with confidence, that’s what his mom had always said about walking in ice and snow. If you walk with confidence, you won’t fall.

Mom was wrong.

He took a strong step and hit a patch of ice and went sliding. He found his arms out wildly in any direction, hoping he’d come into contact with something solid to keep him from falling. Instead, all he found was the slick material of the outside of someone’s coat, and it was too late.

He hit the ground, hard, his tailbone slamming into the concrete, and felt another body slam down next to him.

He opened his mouth to apologise, and then he heard her laughter.

She laid there, back on the ground staring up at the sky, giggling like a little kid.

Her smile was blinding, crinkles by her eyes and her nose all scrunched as she laughed.

She eventually calmed, and he piped up.

“I’m so sorry.”

“That’s okay, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, yeah, are YOU alright? I practically yanked you down with me.”

“I’m fine. Weirdly I feel like I needed that.”

“Needed to bruise your tailbone?”

“Needed to get out of my head a little, needed something out of the blue to shake my day up.”

“Happy to help shake in whatever way I can....”

“Emori.”

“Emori. I’m John.”

He realised they were still lying back up on the city sidewalk. People were starting to stare. He hauled himself up and offered her his right hand, when she paused, stuffing her left hand back into her coat. He switched his arms and she took his hand, letting herself be pulled up.

“Nice to meet you, John,” She said, smiling at him before turning and walking away.

“Bye” he called after her, lamely. She peaked over her shoulder before rounding the corner and waved.

And that was that.

He went to work, his own restaurant that he’d managed to open in the city. Just a small Italian place, but he loved it. His friend Harper ran the business, and he cooked the food, and it was nice. A place all his own.

He iced his ass that night while nursing a beer and picking through a list from his vegetable grower, trying to find the specials for the week.

He fell asleep with Emori’s crinkled eyes and brilliant smile in his mind.

He winced when he sat down at lunch with Raven and Bellamy the next day, waiting for Clarke to show up.

“What happened to you?” Raven asked, barely looking up from her menu from where she sat on his left.

“Thanks for your concern.”

“Meh.” She said, still not looking up.

“She’s got a point, what’s wrong with you?” Bellamy asked, a little more kindness in his voice.

“I slipped on the ice on the way to work yesterday and busted my ass. I’m fine, but I feel bad for the girl I dragged down with me.”

“The who what?” Raven asked, suddenly interested.

“Yeah I was on my way to work, and I hit a slick spot, and I was going down, so I reached out to try to find something to grab onto, and I got some girls shoulder and she came down with me.”

“Damn dude, was she pissed?” Raven said. Clarke showed up at that moment, sliding into the table and pressing a kiss into Bellamy’s cheek.

“No, sh-“

“Was who pissed?” Clarke asked.

“Murphy ate it yesterday and dragged some poor girl down with him.”

“No, she wasn’t pissed. She… laughed, actually.”

“She laughed? Is she nuts?”

“I don’t think so. She hit the ground, and just… started laughing. I don’t know, guys.”

“Whats that face, Murphy?” Clarke asked, prying ever so slightly, as was her way.

“What are you talking about?” He said, trying to pull off a blank expression.

“I bet she was cute.”

“Shut up.”

“She WAS cute.” Raven said, laughing.

“Well, did you get her number?”

“I barely got her name, and I wasn’t going to ask for her number? We said maybe four sentences to each other, and I caused her physical injury. Now can we drop this, and maybe talk about something else? Like, I don’t know… literally anything?”

They all scoffed, but the conversation moved on, and he hoped his cheeks weren’t as red as they felt.

A week or so later, he opened the door at the bottom of the stairs of his walk up, stepping outside and turning to pull it closed, when something collided with him, spilling his coffee all down his front. He turned to curse or yell, but was met with big brown eyes and a horrified expression that quickly turned to a smile.

“John. Hi.”

“Emori.”

They stood awkwardly for a second, just staring at each other, before the cold air started to cut through the wet of his sweater, now soaked under his open jacket

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” She said as he looked down himself, arms and chest covered.

“No, it’s fine. I guess we’re even now.”

She smiled a little, turning her eyes to the sky and shaking her head.

“Well, let me at least buy you a cup of coffee, to repay you for the one you lost.”

“I made it upstairs, I can just go make another while I…” He let himself trail off when he caught sight of her slightly amused and expectant expression. She was asking him to get coffee, and not just because she ruined his sweater. Right. “Coffee, that sounds good. Just let me go change.”

“Right, sure.” She smiled, leaning against the wall. He was about to head upstairs when a particularly blistering wind blew down the street, and she shivered.

“You could come up and wait inside, it’s warmer for sure.”

“I wouldn’t want too impo-“

“Really, come up. If you want.”

Emori smiled, and nodded, and so he led the way up to his 3rd floor one bedroom, which he had thankfully had the good sense to clean recently.

He picked through his closet for a shirt, pulling on a hoodie, and walked back out to find her picking through his bookshelf.

“Find something interesting?” He asked, and she didn’t even look up.

“You have a lot of cookbooks.”

“I’m a chef. I own a restaurant.”

“Well that explains the kitchen too, I guess.”

“The kitchen?”

“You have two ovens, dude. No one has two ovens.”

“Right.” He just stared at her. She seemed strangely comfortable, in a strangers apartment. “Coffee? We can go somewhere but I have a good espresso machine if you…”

“Okay. Although you making me coffee here doesn’t help me pay you back for spilling yours.”

“I bruised my tailbone the other day, so I’m going to assume you’re not much better off. We’ll call it square.”

He busied himself at the machine, and placed two full latte’s on his high table.

“So what do you do?”

“I’m a curator for The Met.”

“Whoa.” She smiled, and just shrugged.

“I was always good at finding treasure and beauty in unexpected places, so I tailored my talents from youth into something… useful.” She must have seen the question in his eyes. “I was abandoned as a child, because of this,” She lifted her left hand, which was wrapped in a thick glove, “and I spent a lot of time on the streets growing up. Eventually I found a place, a group home where I found my sister Echo, and we sort of got our lives on track together. I kicked ass in high school, went to Boston College for Art History, and got accepted into The Met’s curator program, and the rest is history.”

“That’s really cool.” He glanced down at her hand, on the table still wrapped in cloth. When he looked up her eyes were on him, a warning. “Can I see?”

“My hand?”

“If you want to show me.”

“I don’t want to freak you out.”

“Trust me, nothing freaks me out. Besides, I bet it’s cool.”

She paused, and then cautiously pulled the fingers of the glove away, and lifted her hand. It was small, only a little bigger than her other, and mangled. Two fingers were fused together below the knuckle, and the skin was marred. She held it up only a second longer, before shoving it back into the glove. Her expression was cautious. He picked up his coffee and smiled over the rim.

“Cool. I was right.”

She rolled her eyes, but left the gloved hand up on the table, and lifted her coffee to her lips, a smile playing across her cheeks.

After that, he saw her all the time. Some weeks he’d only see her on weekends, but other week’s he’d see her every day. One week she went on a trip to France, for only a few days, on some partnership with the Louvre, and his week felt empty and boring.

He took a leap and invited her to Friendsgiving.

“Are you sure?”

“Do you not want to come? Please don’t feel like you have to come.”

“No, I’d like to I just… Sure. Yeah. I’ll come.”

“Bring Echo too, I think Raven and Harper would like her.”

Friendsgiving came without much fanfare, and all of his friends were already piled into his apartment when Emori texted him to buzz her up. He stepped away from one of the three chickens he had been carving, buzzed her in, and stared out over the sea of his friends. Monty and Harper, leaning up against the counter watching Bellamy, Raven, Zeke, and Clarke play a game of Uno that was getting heated. Lexa and her girlfriend Costia were pouring the mulled wine into glasses and setting them out on the table. Octavia and Lincoln were sitting on the couch, flipping through one of the cookbooks they had found, looking for a recipe for something, and Nyko and Anya, Lincolns friends who he’d invited, were drinking beers over by his balcony. Miller and Bryan hadn’t arrived yet, but the house was warm and full of good smells and the sounds of his friends, and suddenly the idea of Emori being part of it all made his heart clench in his chest. She opened the door, and the feeling didn’t go away.

She and Echo introduced themselves to everyone, and Raven made a joke about how they had met, and the slight awkward tension dissipated, and it suddenly felt crazy to him that she hadn’t always been part of this.

Raven and Harper took to Echo quickly, just like he’d expected, but he could never have predicted Anya and her talking all night, or her weird, slightly combative friendship with Lexa that emerged through the evening.

Emori fit right in too.

Bellamy immediately took to her, as if he could sense her difficult childhood and his fathering instincts took over. Raven loved her, they talked for hours about college, because Raven had gone to MIT, and something in the way that Harper looked lovingly over at her throughout the night meant he was right to think she’d fit perfectly.

The night wound down, everyone a little tipsy from warm wine and very full from all the food, and slowly all of his friends filtered out, until Emori was the only one left.

“Echo went home, she has morning training tomorrow.” Echo was a coach for the St. John’s University Women’s Softball Team, he had learned. “I figured you could use some help cleaning up?”

“Yeah sure.”

The house was cleaned up, and she was helping him dry dishes, music playing soft in the background.

“Harper invited me to her holiday party.” She said, reaching out for the next plate to dry. “Well, me and Echo.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I think i’d like to come if… you’d want me too.”

Suddenly, his feelings hit him like a truck.

There she was, looking soft and cute in a big sweater with two braids in her hair, her sleeves up to her elbows as she dried his plates, swaying to the music, talking about nothing, and he felt it. He wasn’t sure if this was what love felt like, but he knew that he was well on his way.

“I definitely would.” He said, and her smile, reaching all the way to the crinkles by her eyes, convinced him. Yeah, he thought, he was definitely well on his way.

Harper’s holiday party, at the beginning of December, came around faster than he expected, and the party was in full swing when he and Emori showed up.

The house is busy, a decent sized crowd in her living room, mostly people he knew, but a few he didn’t, music playing loud from a speaker. He took her hand to guided her through the crowd to the kitchen, and grabbed two bottles from the fridge, popping the tops before he passed her one.

“Are you sure it’s okay I’m here?” She asked, “I mean I know she invited me, but we barely know each other”

“I told her you were coming, she was really excited. Swear.”

“Alright.” She said, looking unconvinced. She stared around the party, scanning the room. She seemed to curl into herself, and he could feel her discomfort radiating off of her.

“You had fun at friendsgiving, right?” He asked, soft. 

“Yeah, but it’s just that was smaller, and it was at your place. It felt more familiar.” 

He nodded, understanding, and reached over, taking her hand and holding it tight as he drank his beer. She squeezed back for a second, and didn’t let go when she loosened her grip.

They stood in the corner, drinking and holding hands, yelling over the music, until Raven came over.

“Augh, finally, someone interesting. Bellamy is talking my ear off about his PhD.” She rolled her eyes, grabbing a bottle of tequila from the counter and pouring a sizeable amount into her already half full cup.

“Aw Reyes, you do like me.”

“Not you, asshole, your girlfriend.” She quipped, grabbing Emori’s free arm and pulling her away from him and into the room, leaving him standing there with his mouth open.

_Girlfriend?_

She eventually made her way back to him, after about half an hour of forced mingling, and leaned against the counter.

“Have you talked to anyone since we got here?” She asked.

“Monty came over and we talked for a bit. I prefer to observe anyway.”

“Creepy.” He shoved her shoulder gently and she laughed.

He felt like he should ask about it, but he didn’t get a chance, because in walked Ontari.

“Great.” He muttered, chugging the last of the beer he had and grabbing a cup for some tequila.

“Deciding to commit to the party, are we?” Emori asked, half laughing and half concerned. “Whats wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“You just got so tense, I could break a brick over your head.” She scoffed.

“Fine. Thats my ex,” He muttered, pointing to Ontari, who was weaving her way through the party, “She turns up at stuff every now and then, someone always invites her to big things, I don’t even know who she still knows, I think it might be Roan. It…. was a really fucked up relationship, and I don’t like being around her. Hence, tequila.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“You never told me about her.”

“I… don’t talk about it.”

“Okay.” She was quiet for a minute, staring at the back of Ontari’s head, before she turned. “But if you… wanted to talk about it…” She trailed off, leaving the suggestion open. He nodded, and knocked back the double shot he’d poured himself before reaching for another.

She reached out and held his wrist instead.

“You don’t need that, I won’t let her anywhere near you.”

In that moment, Emori’s small frame looked menacing, like she held an army within her skin, and weapons in her veins, iron clad and forged in fire. He sometimes forgot how cruel life had been to her, but not in this moment. He set down the bottle, and took her hand.

They stayed in the kitchen, the party buzzing all around them, and they talked about nothing, before Emori’s eyes darkened as she looked towards the entrance to the kitchen.

“Just look at me, don’t even look up.” She whispered.

Ontari walked into the kitchen, visible in his periphery.

He kept looking at Emori, his mouth dry. She smiled, and rubbed her thumb over his hand, and was talking, maybe about her work? He wasn’t listening, blood rushing in his ears, and then he saw Ontari turn and see him.

He locked up, and she walked over.

“Murphy!”

And before he could even react…

“Hi, I’m Emori.”

Ontari looked taken aback, and he pulled his phone out to seem busy.

“Uh… can i help you, _Emori?_ ” She spit, venom burning through her teeth.

“I don't think so, but you can leave.”

“Excuse me?”

“Go. Now.”

“And why would I listen to you? I just wanted to catch up with Murphy, he’s my-“

“I know who you are to him, but he’s mine now, and we’d like you to go.”

“Oh you’re a “we”, are you?”

“Yes.”

“Really Murph, is this your new girlfriend?” Her voice clawed at the insides of his ears, but he kept steady.

“Sorry, what?”

“Oh, your friend here, was it Olivia?”

“Ontari.” She seethed through a clenched jaw.

“Ontari, she was just asking if we were together.” Her eyes were calm, but something in them made him smile.

“Oh.” He tried to keep himself together, and something in her eyes made him lean in, pressing a kiss into the skin behind her jaw, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her close. “Wanna head over there, babe? Harper’s waving us over.”

Emori leaned in closer to him, pressing a hand into his chest, and tilting her head up a little, and making eye contact quickly, inviting another kiss. He pressed his lips into her temple, her hair brushing his nose, the scent of her rosemary shampoo filling his nostrils, and he let his lips linger, and brushing them over her skin when he pulled away. He could say he was trying to sell it, but he honestly sort of forgot Ontari was there, and he just liked the way her warm skin felt against his lips, and how it felt to have her close. He wondered if it was the tequila that was making his head foggy. He thought probably not.

“Yeah lets go find Harper, babe.” She said, smiling up and him, and he reached down, taking her left hand in his, and tugging her into the crowd right past Ontari, who looked liked she’d been decked.

They wove their way through the crowd, and she kept hold of his hand even when they found their way into an open space in the room, where Harper, Raven, and Echo were crowded together in a corner.

They walked up, leaning in a doorframe, slipping into the girls conversation about Anya, who Echo had started dating sometime since friendsgiving.

“Echo, she’s terrifying!”

“Yeah, but… terrifying is hot.”

“You’re so weird.”

“Emori is scary, and Murphy thinks she’s hot.”

“Hey, how did I get dragged into this.” He challenged, paying no mind to the fact that Emori was still pressed into his side, her arm hanging around his waist, her chin pressed into his shoulder, her shampoo filling his senses.

“What?” Emori pressed, “You DON’T think I’m terrifying and hot?”

“There is no answer to that question that ends well for me.”

“True.” Raven snipped from the inside of her cup.

He rolled his eyes, leaning even harder into the wall, when the look in Harper’s eyes made him squirm.

“What?” He asked, short.

She looked up at the top of the doorframe, and then back down, grinning.

He looked up, following her eyes, and saw it.

Mistletoe.

Great.

He looked back at Harper, begging her with his eyes not to say anything, but it was too late.

Echo and Raven had seen it too, and were grinning wide.

“Time to prove it, Murph.”

“Prove wh-“ Emori cut herself off catching sight of the greenery hanging above them. “Oh.”

“Come on, Murph. It’s a custom.”

“Oh I don’t-“

“Aw come on, it’s just cute.”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want too,” Echo said over the pressing of the other girls, “but… it is cute.”

He was halfway through coming up with a response, when he looked up and Ontari was standing across the clearing of the crowd. She hadn’t seen him yet, but she would, and he felt his blood run cold.

Raven saw her too, and opened her mouth to respond, but he didn’t give her a chance. Ontari’s eyes were combing the room, and he looked down at Emori. Her eyes were soft, and he almost mentioned Ontari, almost mentioned a lot of things, but the look in her eyes quieted all the noise. He opened his mouth, to ask, if he could kiss her, just because he wanted too, but he didn’t even have to speak. She just smiled, and nodded slightly, and the room fell quiet around him, and he smiled. He reached up, tucking a stray piece of hair back behind her ear, letting his fingers trace down the side of her cheek, and sliding it back to cup the back of her head, threading his fingers into her hair, tilting her head up just a little to meet him. Their noses were close now, he could feel her warm breath across his lips, and he just grinned down at her. She pressed up a little on her toes, and he opened his lips just a little to capture hers. Her lips were soft, and a soft noise escaped her lips as she let herself press into him. They held the kiss for only a few seconds, until he felt her smile against his lips, and he couldn’t keep his expression straight either, and they were laughing against each others mouths. She pulled back just a little, pressing a kiss up under his jaw, and then she pulled herself back from him, leaning up against the opposite side of the doorframe.

He held her gaze until she looked away, grinning, and he leaned his head agains the doorframe, starring up at the little plant above him, shaking his head.

The party carried on, and they kept a bit of distance, and at the end of the night, she wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug, and he thought he might have felt her lips graze the skin there, but then she pulled away, promised to make plans, and stepped down the stairs into the subway station.

He felt like he was floating all the way home.

She kept calling him for plans, and they kept hanging out. They’d get coffee, they’d get dinner. She’d post up at the bar at his restaurant, picking through small plates of appetisers he’d send out as she combed through her work until he closed up.

It was just like before, but it wasn’t.

She’d linger at the end of the night at his door, or him at hers, like they hoped maybe they’d be asked to stay.

He’d find himself resting a hand on her knee or her waist, or holding her in close to him at a bar. She’d lace their fingers together in a crowd, so they didn’t get separated, and he’d notice hours later that they’d never let go.

It was just like before, but now his heart ached when she wasn’t close.

He tried to shove it down, because it was ridiculous. Because he was John Murphy. Because nothing in his life ever worked out that well. Because she was smart, and beautiful, and accomplished, and even with his own restaurant, he still felt like the other shoe was bound to drop at any point. Because she was remarkable, and he… was John Murphy.

At least, that’s what he was feeling, until Bellamy and Clarke’s New Year’s party.

It wasn’t any different than any other party. It was loud, and fun. There was a lot of cheap champagne, and even more variations of liquor, and their friends were happy, and Emori was tucked right into his side, which was probably the best part.

It was definitely the best part.

Midnight was close approaching, and the party was sort of dying down. People stared pairing off about 20 minutes before, and Emori was still there, pressed into his side, an arm around his waist, her fingers gently brushing the skin on the inside of his wrist.

And then, 2 minutes before midnight, she disentangled herself from him, and headed for a bathroom.

The clock struck midnight, and he was all alone.

Miller smacked a wet kiss right on his mouth at midnight, because Bryan was nowhere to be seen, and he laughed good-naturedly and hugged his friend tight, but his mind was wandering, and he was looking for her over Miller’s shoulder.

It had been about 10 minutes, when he saw a flash of green that matched her dress slipping out of the window onto the fire escape.

He wasn’t sure if she wanted him too, but he followed her.

He followed all the way up to the roof, and saw her leaned up against the edge of the roof, watching the fireworks over the city, her arms wrapped around her body.

He pulled his jacket off, and walked up behind her, announcing himself when he was far enough back that he wouldn’t startle her. She turned, meeting his eyes, a soft half smile on her face, before turning back.

He walked up and placed the jacket on her shoulders, and leaned up next to her.

“You disappeared.”

“Had to pee.”

“Sure.”

“Yep.”

They stood for a minute, and for the first time since they met, awkwardness crept into the chilly air between them.

“I didn’t really have to pee.”

“I figured.”

“Sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?”

“Well I ju-“ She let out a huff of air, staring up at the sky. “I got nervous.”

“What?” He felt himself lean away from her, suddenly overly aware of their proximity.

“I just… got nervous… about kissing you.” She paused, like she was picking through her thoughts. “Again.”

“You got nervous again, or got nervous about us kissing again?”

“Both.”

“Okay.” He tried to keep himself together, but his anxiety was racing. He made her feel nervous? Their kiss made her _nervous_?

“It’s not you. Like… you don’t make me nervous.” Like she could read his mind. “But whatever this is kind of makes me nervous.”

“Okay.”

“I haven’t ever… felt like this about anyone before. And I feel like it’s…”

“Too good to be true.” He finished for her.

“Exactly.” She whispered, a cloud of her breath floating in the cold air.

They stood for a minute, silent in the night, and then she reached down and took his hand.

“I think it’s stupid that I’m avoiding something because I think it’s _too_ good.” She wasn’t looking at him, but their fingers were laced together and she was leaning into his shoulder. “Who does that. Who avoids something because it’s good.”

“People like us.” He could hardly even exhale, because it felt like a much heavier moment than it should. Like the weight of their collective pasts was hanging above them, ready to fall at any moment. “People who have lost so much, that anything good feels like a trick.”

She worried her lip between her teeth, and he didn’t look away from her mouth when she turned to face him.

“If it’s a trick, if it’s too good to be true…” She was quiet now, and she kept getting closer and closer.

“Then we should make the most of it before it gets ripped out from under us?”

“It’s like you read my mind, John Murphy.”

“I’m gonna kiss you now, if that alright.”

“You sure you don’t want to go find Miller? That kiss wa-“

He cut off her jokes with his lips, laughing against her mouth as he kissed her, capturing the giggles that melded with a sigh as she wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him close. The kiss was soft, and then it wasn’t. It turned warm and wet, and suddenly he was kissing her like his life depended on it. He led her back, slowly, towards a wall, and pressed himself against her as much as he could, kissing down her throat and across her clavicle, until she took a hand to bring him back up to meet her mouth again.

They kissed up there, in the cold, for what had to be almost 20 minutes, before a loud pop of a champagne bottle from below startled them apart. Her eyes were bright, and her nose red from the cold, her lips swollen, and he’d like to say he wasn’t sure if it was love, but he’d be lying.


End file.
